TV and film stars will work fast to pull off 'The 24 Hours Plays'

The cast of the 2012 edition of "The 24 Hour Plays" takes its bows at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. This year's third annual staging will take place there Saturday.

The cast of the 2012 edition of "The 24 Hour Plays" takes its bows at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. This year's third annual staging will take place there Saturday. (Michael Bezjian / Getty Images For Montblanc)

The task facing the team of 24 actors, six writers and six directors is to bring six short plays to fruition within 24 hours, beginning with an initial brainstorming session Friday night and ending with Saturday evening’s final bows.

The box office take will help fund programs run by the nonprofit group Urban Arts Partnership. Tickets are offered at $200 or $100 in the 499-seat house, with the $100 balcony section already sold out, according to the show’s online sales site.

Montblanc, a maker of pens and other luxury items, sponsors “The 24 Hour Plays” in both Los Angeles and New York, with Urban Arts Partnership as beneficiary.

The writers figure to be the leading caffeine consumers: Each is expected to submit a 10-minute play by 7 a.m. Saturday, based on input received during a session at 10 p.m. Friday in which they'll meet with the actors and directors to bat around initial ideas. Rehearsals commence by 9 a.m., and the results unfold for playgoers starting at 8.

In a new wrinkle, participants in Urban Arts Partnership's L.A. programs auditioned for the show's acting ensemble in May. Emanuel De Los Santos, 16, and Cedeshea Oliver, 17, were the winners who'll give new meaning to the term "student rush."

“The 24 Hour Plays” also features musical guests between plays. One of them, Natalie Mendoza, has a tale or two to tell about theater-as-an-ordeal. She’d been tapped by director Julie Taymor to originate the role of Arachne in Broadway’s “Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark,” but got conked on the head by a piece of backstage equipment during the musical’s first performance in November 2010.

Mendoza suffered a concussion and subsequently exited the show, one of several cast members who were injured during rehearsals or previews for the technically complex production.